Many churches do live Internet services, but Flamingo Road Church is taking it to a whole new level with a social network application. Flamingo Road Church is utilizing the Facebook platform, but took it a step further and developed the first live interactive service video streaming to connect with its guests. ...
Flamingo Road Church is one of the leading churches that offer an "Internet campus" to their guests. Virtual church attendees can observe live services and simultaneously interact with Brian Vasil, Internet campus pastor.

On Sunday morning, Northland, A Church Distributed will officially open the doors to its new Facebook app, which will allow worshipers to invite their Facebook friends to go to church with them—without leaving the familiar Facebook environment. Plus, even when live worship isn't happening, the opportunity for worship is readily available because the previous week's service will be posted and available for viewing 24 hours a day.

Good news for the Facebook residents! This does makes me wonder if there's anything in the water there in Florida that's fostering church innovations thousands of miles away from Silicon Valley ...

Perhaps in its simplest form, online church is defined as a virtual
expression of a physical worship service. ... the
ascension of online church was inevitable, and it’s likely the number
of online churchgoers will multiply for years to come. We’ve seen this
firsthand at McLean Bible Church. In two short years, our Internet
Campus has grown in attendance from 10 to 3,000.

“I think online churches are here to stay,” Chuang said. “They are a
viable strategy for outreach, forming community, and building
relationships, in the fellowship sense as well as the discipleship
sense.”

... Brandon Donaldson of LifeChurch.tv holds the distinction of being
the world’s first online church pastor, and he also holds a strong
conviction about the effectiveness of online church. “The Church is all
about people,” Donaldson said. “The Internet is just some tool we
created, and I think all churches should use it.”

“You can’t do everything online,” he continued, “but you also can’t do everything in a church building. ..."

October 26, 2009

This new book by Douglas Estes, SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World, tackles the brewing questions surrounding the legitimacy of an online church. Many church leaders are discerning and discussing the "what is the church?" question that's been going for years, and now, growing numbers of church leaders are asking it in the context of online worship experiences and forming relationships and communities virtually.

The book's official website poses the question as: "Church on the Internet? Seriously?" This
is the question many people are asking as more and more people chose to
congregate online, and more and more churches look to launch internet
campuses. But are these internet churches real? Are they healthy? Are
they productive for faith? This is a conversation you can't afford to
miss as together we ask, "What does it mean to be the church in the
virtual world?"

As I've started reading through the book, I appreciated the author not taking a cautionary posture, throwing up warnings and fears of how technology could be misused. Estes digs behind the assumptions and cultural lens we have about being present with one another in inter-personal relationships. This is excerpted from page 60-61,

"If we want community to flourish in the virtual world, we'll need to scrutinize our learned understanding of presence. Most people raised and educated in the Western world think of presence or being present as a physical act... Though defining presence simply as the location of our bodies is one of the foundational bricks of modern Western understanding of the world, it is not a God-given or biblical idea." [emphasis added]

I think the book makes a compelling case for how relationships can occur through telepresence, and that a biblical community and a biblical church is not limited by the geography of a physical location.

While I'm not so sure the discussions and reviews will change a lot of minds at this stage of the dialogue, I do think this book is one to be reckoned with. Where are you at with your thinking about the church in the virtual world?

-- DJ CHUANG, Director at Leadership Network [disclaimer: I received an advance reading copy of SimChurch from the publisher]

September 23, 2009

Ryan Spilhaus (Associate Director of the Internet Campus) gave me a tour of the studio at McLean Bible Church's internet campus. By the way, McLean Bible Church just recently relaunched its website too, with a new logo design that better reflects its identity as a multi-site church.

Watch the video to see how they have things setup. They're one of the few internet campuses that runs 2 video feeds during a live experience, one for the person teaching and one for the accompanying slides.

Internet campuses out there - how about a studio tour of where you produce your online experiences? Add a link in the comment section below.

July 31, 2009

Mac Lake of the Leading Multisite network held the camera for me as I took a few minutes to share about what I'm observing with churches launching internet campuses. Watch the video to hear about this trend with internet campuses, and add a comment below:

July 01, 2009

This weekend marks the first weekend of church worship services that will be live-streamed onto iPhones. Assuming all 5 services would be live-streamed, services at New Hope Christian Fellowship will be live-streaming on Saturday 7/4 at 5 & 7pm and Sunday 7/5 at 7, 9 & 11am, Hawaii Time. Being translated, that would be in Pacific Time: Saturday 8pm + 10pm, Sunday 10am + 12pm + 2pm. New Hope also has an internet campus with streaming video and an interactive online community.

Less than two weeks after the release of Apple's iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3.0 update, Honolulu-based New Hope Christian Fellowship (http://www.enewhope.org) has announced that it will begin streaming its weekend worship services live to iPhone and iPod touch users.

Live streaming to the iPhone was one of the most requested features from church attendees, and is now possible with the inclusion of HTTP live streaming in Apple's iPhone 3.0 software. New Hope's addition of live streaming to the iPhone is significant in that it is the first non-profit organization to offer this type of service.
"Typically, churches are years behind other organizations when it comes to technology and innovation. We have tried to reverse that trend and pioneer new ways to spread the Gospel using the most current tools available," explains New Hope's Technology and Innovations Director, Michael Sharpe. "We don't mind the long hours and stress that comes with innovating because we know that if we can come up with something useful, it can be used by other churches around the world."

Leveraging standards-based HTTP streaming technology, New Hope will deliver high quality video over either a Wi-Fi connection or other carrier network, providing for a truly portable experience.

After successfully testing the service this past weekend with hundreds of users, the church is now planning to offer the live streaming video of its services to all iPhone and iPod Touch users starting July 4th.

The church currently streams all five weekend services live on its website for computer users and created the streaming for the iPhone as a free service for those who may not have access to a computer.

"We are always looking for ways that we can leverage technology to reach people where they are at," said New Hope's Interactive Developer Peter Thourson, "through live streaming video on iPhone and iPod touch, users across the globe will be able to continue to attend church regardless of where they are."

Availability

The live stream of New Hope's Services will be available on their website at http://www.enewhope.org beginning July 4th. The live stream requires an iPhone or iPod touch with the 3.0 software update and an active Internet connection.

About New Hope Christian Fellowship

Started in 1995, New Hope Christian Fellowship Oahu is one of the fastest-growing churches in the nation according to "Outreach Magazine," with over 12,000 people in regular attendance at 6 locations. "Outreach Magazine" also named New Hope as one of the most influential and innovative churches in the United States.

... The 32-year-old [Bobby] Gruenewald is a pastor at LifeChurch.tv, an Edmond, Okla., organization that, with tens of thousands of followers, has created a virtual house of worship, with sermons, prayer and Bible study for an international congregation.

... Gruenewald said the average “congregation” at any given time on a Sunday is about 3,000 visitors, but over the course of the 90-to-120-minute services, between 12,000 and 15,000 unique viewers will log on. The services incorporate live preaching, songs and sermons from the church’s physical locations across the United States through a live feed, while viewers can chat with one another or church volunteers.

To further connect virtual users, the site also employs a chat function that automatically translates their language into a language of one’s choosing. Someone in Brazil can type a comment in Portuguese, for example, and it will be translated instantaneously to English for a viewer in Idaho. This feature, church leaders say, fosters a sense of immediate community among people with no other commonalities besides an abiding interest in Jesus.

... we need to recognize the utter importance of powerful, transformational preaching. And we need to create systems by which those with such preaching ability and gifting can be widely available. Why restrict a gifted preacher to one community? Lifechurch.tv lead the way in making resources, including preaching, available to more than those who turn up in person for the service.

We need to move from appointing leaders based on them completing the right degree to giving more weight to discerning their ability to complete the leadership task.

We need to create the opportunity for people to 'be at church' or part of a community at any moment in the day/week. Setting a special time on Sunday morning is artificial and limiting.

Mark also explores other issues affected by the digital revolution, namely, church governance, church leadership, and the institutional church as we know it. Read the full article.

From my vantage point, I'm guessing that changes to how we live out our faith as the church is only beginning. More changes are yet to come. Technology is only a part of what's ushering in the change. (Aside: there are at least 27 churches with Internet campuses offering church online) What do you think?

March 10, 2009

Please share how your church started its Internet campus, and describe how a worship experience looks like.

HighImpactChurch.tv, the Internet Campus of Richmond Community Church began in January 2008. We here at RCC, looked at the Internet Campus as an extension of our multi-site vision. The Internet Campus allowed us to leverage the Internet to bring a modern worship experience to people at their computer anywhere in the world.

In the last year we have improved the streaming capability, overhauled the website and added many of our ministries to the campus. The Internet Campus is truly a campus; it has small groups, classes, and ministry happening on a daily/weekly basis.

The HighImpactChurch.tv experience is captured live from the Glen Allen Campus service every Sunday morning. We do break away during announcements and closing for Internet Campus specific material.

How has the Internet campus made a difference in someone's life?

HighImpactChurch.tv has changed my life for sure. As the Campus Director, I have been exposed to other cultures and countries that I may have not experienced if not for the Internet Campus. I have also met people from all around the world. The idea of connecting with someone from Europe or around the world through our Internet Campus is really exciting to me.

The Internet Campus has also changed other people’s lives too. We have had people attend classes where they learn about Jesus, the Church, and Faith. These classes help seekers and believers connect with God. We have also begun small groups where people from all around the world can connect on a weekly basis.

January 08, 2009

Courtesy of a connection via 360Hubs' Dawn Carter, I interviewed the company that developed the Internet campus for Central Christian Church pastored by Jud Wilhite. Central launched its Internet campus, called Central Online Campus, in September 2008 with 400 online attendees. Attendace grew to 1,200 online in eight weeks.

DJ: Describe how long it took to build and a ballpark estimate in terms of costs and personnel for on-going operations.

KE: We actually pulled of a miracle in launching this site. We had only a few months, and a very limited budget, 360Hubs was able to work with us and make it happen. Ongoing operations cost us approx. $70k a year, but that is because we are pulling it off with a small personnel staff. Basically it includes a live video engineer who captures, edits, and uploads the service (he only works weekends for us), I have a site administrator who is full-time, then another part time guy who we just brought on to help us get the online small groups going. Right now I am serving as the online campus pastor, but plan on hiriing someone else to do that sometime in 2009.

DJ: What tools do you provide that connect participants beyond the worship experience?

KE: We have online small groups, organized lobby chat times, not to mention the lobby chat is open all the time. We have also done 1 online campus mission trip which was a huge success, and have another one planned for march of 2009. Mid-January we will be opening our online resource center for our online campus to purchase and download Bible Study materials, small group materials, even downloadable teaching videos.

DJ: What makes an internet campus different from live streaming a worship service?

JP: The answer can be summed up in one word: COMMUNITY. An internet campus should focus on making "next steps" easier for believers and non-believers. Church is about much more than experiencing worship or a "church simulation", it is about connecting with God, other believers, and challenging yourself. Internet Campuses should complement a church's vision for connecting people. It definitely is not a replacement for experiencing community with other believers. That said, an internet campus provides a fantastic, safe, convenient, and comfortable venue for allowing people who would not normally seek church to learn more about God, experience worship, discuss their thoughts / questions, pray for each other, meet other believers, and learn about a particular church's vision.

One of the Church's biggest challenges is really thinking through the discipleship and care for these digital members of the church and having appropriate next steps / growth points beyond the online church experience for allowing them to connect and experience the community the body of Christ.

DJ: What functions did you build into the Central Online Campus?

JP: CentralOnlineCampus.com has a variety of features intended to connect people with God and each other. Members of the community have personal spaces where they can share their life stories, prayer requests, struggles, victories, etc using web 2.0 tools for managing a personal bio, blog, photo gallery, etc. They can also engage with each other through social networking, in-site messaging, chat, and instant messaging. Central also staffs a live help and prayer desks during and after each sermon, which pushes simulated live video on Sundays and Tuesdays.

Another important aspect of the internet campus is small groups. COC users may organize into public or private small groups and share about the sermon, engage in thoughtful discussion, learn from the Word / each other, prayer with each other, and digitally connect using many tools such as forums, calendars, photo / media gallery, news aggregator, blog, content pages, file management, and more. Additionally, each group may completely customize the look / feel / layout to their unique interests.

DJ: What have you learned since launch?

JP: An internet campus is much bigger than the technology that empowers it. The technology is crucial... it needs to be easy to use and available. It is also very important to facilitate a community of openness. Many churches might fear the types of things people might say... and while the community should be managed and monitored to appropriately protect the members... the community of Christ is about the healing and accountability that results from true openness and availability. The campus pastor has a unique job of trying to reach across many cultural barriers and really be a champion encouraging interaction and engagement.

That's a wrap! Thank you Jonathan and Kurt for this interview! You can read more about the backstory from this recent Christian Standard article about the Central Online Campus. According to that article,

Add a comment below with your follow-up questions, and the interview can continue with your questions!